The couple was 85 years old each, and had been married for sixty years. Though they were far from rich, they managed to get by because they watched their dimes, nickels, and pennies. Despite their age, they were both in very good health, largely due to the wife's insistence on healthy foods and exercise for the last decade.

One day, their good health didn't help when they went on a rare vacation and their plane crashed, sending them off to Heaven. They reached the pearly gates, and St. Peter escorted them inside. He took them to a beautiful mansion, furnished in gold and fine silks, with a fully stocked kitchen and a waterfall in the master bath. An angel could be seen hanging their favorite clothes in the closet.

They gasped in astonishment when St. Peter said, "Welcome to Heaven. This will be your home now." The old man asked Peter how much all this was going to cost. "Why, nothing," Peter replied, "remember, this is your reward in Heaven."

The old man looked out the window and right there he saw a championship golf course, finer and more beautiful than any ever built on Earth.

"What are the greens fees?," grumbled the old man.
"This is heaven," St. Peter replied.
"You can play for free, every day."

Next they went to the clubhouse and saw the lavish buffet lunch, with every imaginable cuisine laid out before them, from seafood to steaks to exotic desserts, PLUS free flowing beverages.

"Don't even ask," said St. Peter to the man.
"This is Heaven, it is all free for you to enjoy."
The old man looked around and glanced nervously at his wife.

"Well, where are the low fat and low cholesterol foods, and the decaffeinated tea?" he asked.
"That's the best part of all." St. Peter replied.
"You can eat and drink as much as you like of whatever you like, and you will never get fat or sick. This is Heaven!"
The old man pushed: "No gym workouts?"
"Not unless you want to." was Peter's answer.
"No testing my sugar or blood pressure or..."
"Never again. All you do here is enjoy yourself."

The old man reddened, then glared at his wife and said, "You and your bran muffins. We could have been here ten years sooner!"

I hope you don�t take this humor seriously! It is true that heaven is a worry-free place. But I don�t want you to go there TOO SOON � because of not eating bran muffins or quitting exercises! Speaking of health, I am not a medical doctor. But this morning, I�d like to talk about two medical terms that have been created not long ago.

The first one is: �placebo effect.� This �placebo effect� means that you can treat a patient without giving actual medications. You give the patient some pills � actually some kinds of �sugar pills� without any real medical substance.

But you tell the patient that it is the prescribed medication for the patient�s problem. And the patient believes it and takes them and, surprisingly, is cured.

So, this effect is a beneficial effect. The word �placebo� in Latin means, �I will please.� And that�s exactly what those little sugar pills do. They please us and make us feel better. On the other hand, there is an �evil twin� of this �placebo� effect.

About a decade ago, researchers made a surprising discovery: Women who believed that they were prone to heart disease were nearly four times as likely to die as women who did not hold such negative and hopeless views.

Their risk factors were the same: age, blood pressure, cholesterol, and weight. So their higher risk of death had nothing to do with these usual heart disease problem. Instead, the only difference was their beliefs - whether or not they believed they were at risk for heart disease.

Bottom line: They thought they were going to get sick and die, and so they did.

Think sick, be sick. This is called �nocebo� effect.

The word �nocebo� is Latin for �I will harm,� and that�s precisely what negative beliefs tend to do. Think sick, be sick.

While the �placebo� effect refers to health benefits produced by a treatment that should have no effect, patients experiencing the �nocebo� effect experience the opposite. They presume the worst, health-wise, and that�s what they get.

There was a �nocebo� effect running wild in Corinth back in the first century A.D. And it was tied to concerns about eating meat that had been sacrificed to idols.

Imagine yourself, just for a second, back to Corinth, crowded and busy Greek city. This city is a central place of commercial activity and religious diversity. Look around, check out the temples to the Greek gods. Worshipers routinely sacrifice animals to their gods, and then the �leftovers� of the sacrificial animals are sold to the meat markets for resale to the public.

Let�s say you go to a �Corinthian McDonalds.� Your �BigMac� or �Quarter Pounder� might include the leftovers from a sacrifice to Zeus, the king of the gods.

This is common practice, and no one has a problem with it - no one except some of the early converts to Christianity. These followers of Jesus have, of course, turned their backs on the Greek gods. And they feel guilty about eating meat that has been sacrificed to gods who are idols.

They want to be faithful followers of Jesus Christ, and they sense that eating this tainted meat will make them spiritually unclean. These fears about impurity are enough to make them miserable. It�s an ancient example of �think sick, be sick.�

Paul reminds the Corinthians that no idol in the world really exists, and that there is no God but the one Father of Jesus Christ. Sure, there may be many �so-called gods� in heaven or on earth.

But for Christians, there is only one God the Father and one Lord Jesus Christ, the Creator and Preserver of all things.

1 Corinthians 8:4-6 say: [4] Hence, as to the eating of food offered to idols, we know that �no idol in the world really exists,� and that �there is no God but one.� [5] Indeed, even though there may be so-called gods in heaven or on earth�as in fact there are many gods and many lords� [6] yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist.

So is there any problem with eating meat offered to idols? No, not really.

Idols don�t exist; so sacrifices to Greek gods are sacrifices to nothing. Meat can�t be tainted by something that is nothing.

But wait a second. The �nocebo� effect reminds us that people can get sick based on beliefs, not just facts. Remember? The women who believed they were prone to heart disease died at a higher rate based on their beliefs, not based on their physical health.

It�s not enough for a doctor to say, �You�re perfectly healthy.� And it�s not enough for Paul to say, �Idol meat is perfectly fine.� People have to believe it for it to have an effect.

Paul knows that not everyone is going to believe what he says about idol meat. So he recommends that the Christians in Corinth put more emphasis on love than on knowledge.

In v. 1: Paul reminds them: �Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.�

What�s his point? He says that your should make your decisions based on �what is most loving,� not on �what kind of knowledge� you have.

It is true that if you know too much about anything, you would worry too much about anything.

One of the Korean Old Sayings is: �too much knowledge makes you sick.�

Yes, it�s true that if you worry too much about anything, you would be overwhelmed by every negative aspects rather than what it is supposed to be � what it is meant to be.

That�s why Paul emphasizes that Love is the key, regardless of where you stand on idol meat, or anything else.

Today we still experience and get sick because of this �nocebo� effect that can be found in many areas of life and in many ways.

We think we are smart and consider ourselves knowing everything in our lives and trying to figure out all the answers in our lives. However, the more we know, the more we become frustrated.

So, what�s the cure? Paul�s advice is to avoid rating knowledge or certainty or �being right� too highly.

The fundamental and the most important principle for the church is love, shown through an attitude of respect for Christians of diverse beliefs. Not everyone has the same knowledge. And this is as true for the issue of idol meat as it is for the issues that trouble us today.

The important thing is to behave in such a loving way that you do not become a stumbling block to your fellow Christians. For Paul, this meant that he abstained from eating meat, even though he believed that there was nothing really wrong with it.

He took seriously the fact that some of his fellow Christians believed that idol meat was unclean, and that their faith would be hurt - even destroyed - by eating such meat. And so Paul put their needs ahead of his own, and promised in v. 13:

[13] Therefore, if food is a cause of their falling, I will never eat meat, so that I may not cause one of them to fall.

What a concept!
To put the needs of our Christian opponents ahead of our own;
To invest our energy in building up their faith, instead of knocking down their points of view;
To love our neighbors as we love ourselves;
And to follow the words of Jesus when he said in Matthew 7:12 �In everything do to others as you would have them do to you.�

In the church today, we are so concerned about �being right� that we have forgotten about �being loving.� But as Paul points out in today�s passage about idol meat, our primary Christian responsibility is not to be correct, but to be compassionate.

Our job is to care for, nurture and build up one another in love, and to recognize that everyone is a precious child of God, a brother or sister �for whom Christ died� (v. 11).

If we fail to see each other in this light - see even those with whom we have profound disagreements � then we sin against members of our family, and, according to Paul, we �sin against Christ�:

In v. 12: [12] But when you thus sin against members of your family, and wound their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ.

My brothers and sisters in Christ!

When we fail to behave as Christians, showing love and mercy and grace and understanding, we fail to function as a healthy church. But when we act in ways that are loving, we discover a health and vitality that we�ve never known before.

A church that loves God and neighbor is a community of faith that is growing larger, getting deeper, reaching out and transforming human lives.

How about our church?
Are we really a loving church?
Yes, I believe so � but not very good at showing that love! Maybe we love one another very well; but not to other people.

Are we really a welcoming church?
Yes, I believe so � but sometimes we ignore our newcomers � visitors.

My brothers and sisters in Christ!

Do you want to become a growing church or a church that is static? Then within one year or two, we must engage ourselves in bringing more souls to Christ!

We�ve got to do what we are supposed to do and what we are called to do! Sadly, we�ve been having more people who pass away than the people who join our church!

Why visitors would not join our church as members? If we are truly a loving church, visitors can feel it from entering into the sanctuary to the coffee fellowship.

One loving word, one loving deed, one loving smile, and one loving kindness to others make a big difference!

When we behave this way, we become a truly strong and healthy part of the body of Christ in the world today.

So, will we be a �nocebo,� �I will harm� ... or a �placebo,� �I will please�?

What�s pleasing to God is a church that puts love first.

May God bless you all. (Amen)

(Sermon resources adapted from �Homiletics� [January/February 2003])